Draped curtains, sparkling suits and partial viewers of singers’ faces summon the magic of the stage in British artist Louise Giovanelli’s paintings at GRIMM Gallery’s new Tribeca space. Here, a carefully coifed wave of blond hair creates a bold, organic geometry that suggests a force of nature while testifying to the artifice of show-biz. (On view through Oct 23rd).
One of Dutch artist Guido van der Werve’s best known performances involved walking just 16 yards in front of an ice breaking ship in the Baltic sea, an example of the physical punishment and risk he’s willing to endure for his art. Now for a new on-line exhibition, Luhring Augustine Gallery, GRIMM Gallery and Monitor Gallery are teaming up to present still photographs from the artist’s mind-bending 2012 performance ‘Nummer Veertien, home,’ for which he swam, biked and ran 1,200 miles across Europe. Van der Werve’s journey began at the location of Chopin’s interred heart (Warsaw) and ended at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris where the rest of the composer’s body is buried. In Paris, the artist delivered a small container of soil from outside Chopin’s childhood home, connecting the two places and creating a profound link between his own history and that of his favorite composer. (On view through June 19th).
Dutch photographer Dana Lixenberg’s iconic photos for Vibe magazine in the 90s of Tupac Shakur & Biggie appear at the center of schematic mural at Grimm Gallery that demonstrates the incredible currency that photos can have. Radiating from the center, remakes of Lixenberg’s photos of the two music legends appear in the foam of a latte, on tattoos and via The Simpsons characters among other iterations. (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 29th).
When German painter Daniel Richter radically switched painting styles c. 2015, moving from newspaper or history book-inspired representational scenes to more expressionistic scenarios, he explained that he wanted to get away from the ‘theater stage,’ and from ‘…knowing what I’m about to do.’ His recent paintings at GRIMM Gallery feature powerful, abstracted encounters between unknown actors, creating dramas that go beyond a particular moment in time. Here, two figures emerge from a dark background locked in combat against a dramatically lit sky, their large scale suggesting an apocalyptic encounter between the toga-clad character on the left and the alien-like combatant with elongated, insectoid leg on the left. (On view on the Lower East Side through Jan 4th).
Inspired by Robert Altman’s 1973 film ‘The Long Goodbye,’ Dave McDermott latest paintings consider the private investigator/protagonist who mucks through complicated and broken lives to do his job. This saucer-eyed cat – made of swirls of blue and red yarn lined up over hot pink paint – bears witness to humanity’s flaws. (On view at GRIMM on the Lower East Side through March 11th.)
